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Tue, 31 Mar 2015 17:41:05 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.1.1PHAI Takes Cigarette Companies to Courthttp://ash.org/phai-takes-cigarette-companies-to-court/
http://ash.org/phai-takes-cigarette-companies-to-court/#commentsFri, 27 Mar 2015 16:16:23 +0000http://ash.org/?p=6573... Read the full article >]]>The Public Health Advocacy Institute (“PHAI”) announced today that its newly formed Center for Public Health Litigation has filed lawsuits against two major tobacco companies and several local distributors on behalf of the families of two former smokers who suffered devastating disease from smoking cigarettes.

“This is the first time a non-profit organization has directly taken on the tobacco industry in court,” said Richard Daynard, University Distinguished Professor at Northeastern University School of Law and the President of PHAI. “Big Tobacco kills more than 50% of the people who buy its products, and it has for years tried to deny its legal responsibility for this public health calamity. The Center for Public Health Litigation is going to ask the Massachusetts courts to hold the tobacco companies accountable in these two cases, and in more cases to be filed soon.”

]]>http://ash.org/phai-takes-cigarette-companies-to-court/feed/0Leaked TPP investment chapter shows US tobacco control rules at riskhttp://ash.org/leaked-tpp-investment-chapter/
http://ash.org/leaked-tpp-investment-chapter/#commentsThu, 26 Mar 2015 16:51:23 +0000http://ash.org/?p=6566WASHINGTON — An ambitious 12-nation trade accord pushed by President Obama would allow foreign corporations to sue the United States government for actions that undermine their investment “expectations” and hurt their business, according to a classified document.

]]>http://ash.org/leaked-tpp-investment-chapter/feed/0Hollywood and Tobacco: New Spotlight on Smoking At The Movieshttp://ash.org/hollywood-and-tobacco/
http://ash.org/hollywood-and-tobacco/#commentsWed, 25 Mar 2015 19:31:39 +0000http://ash.org/?p=6559... Read the full article >]]>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

March 24, 2015

Hollywood and Tobacco: New Spotlight on Smoking At The Movies

Launch of Revamped UCSF Website Ranks Actors, Directors, Top 10 Movies by Their Use of Tobacco

UC San Francisco is launching a revamped Smokefree Movies website that offers the public unusual insight into Hollywood’s role in the global tobacco epidemic, projected to kill one billion people this century.

Updated every week, the site ranks film producers, directors, writers and actors by their on-screen tobacco footprint based on a database of more than 2,000 films released since 2002.

The site currently lists the five “smokiest” actors, directors, and producers since 2002 as:

Actors

Directors

Producers

Leonardo DiCaprio

Martin Scorsese

Grant Heslov

J.K. Simmons

George Clooney

George Clooney

Vince Vaughn

Clint Eastwood

Scott Rudin

Hugh Jackman

Peter Jackson

Brian Grazer

Viggo Mortensen

Quentin Tarantino

Graham King

Additionally, the website’s “Now Showing” feature reveals the tobacco content of the top ten movies in theaters and on DVD each week. It also provides information about film companies. For example in the last three years, Time Warner accounted for 22% of all the tobacco impressions in top grossing films. That was the same amount for independent producer-distributors (22%), followed by Sony (17%), Fox (14%), Viacom (Paramount) (11%), Comcast (Universal) (8%), and Disney (6%).

Smoking in movies, encouraged for decades by tobacco company cross-promotions and product placements, leads to thousands of new young smokers every year, according to federal health officials.

“The major media companies and the Hollywood studios they own have known since at least 2002 that smoking in movies causes kids to smoke and eventually die from a long list of tobacco diseases,” says Stanton Glantz, PhD, director of the UCSF Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education, which created the movie website. “By looking at top-grossing movies and putting all the key health information in one place, the website gives everyone from parents and public officials to film critics and Wall Street analysts an inside look at the tobacco choices Hollywood producers are making now.”

The website:

Traces the history of commercial collaboration by U.S. tobacco and film industries;

Summarizes scientific research in a dozen countries supporting the U.S. Surgeon General’s conclusion that exposure to on-screen smoking causes kids to smoke;

Offers evidence-based policy solutions based by the World Health Organization, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and other leading health authorities;

Monitors in real time the progress or failure of specific media companies and their movie studio subsidiaries to safeguard young audiences worldwide by reserving smoking for their R-rated films.

U.S public health officials for years have warned that exposure to on-screen smoking causes young people to start smoking. The CDC has decried the movie industry’s failure to protect impressionable young viewers, and in 2012 the Surgeon General reported that because of the onscreen exposure, “6.4 million children alive today will become smokers, and 2 million of these children will die prematurely from diseases caused by smoking.”

A significant number of the movies depicting smoking were rated PG-13, the Surgeon General reported.

“The CDC reports that R-ratings on movies with smoking can prevent a million future tobacco deaths among American kids alone,” Glantz says. “The media company chiefs could easily direct their trade group, the Motion Picture Association of America, to add smoking to the voluntary R-rating standard, alongside the non-lethal content it already rates R. The longer they delay, the more kids worldwide will be addicted to cigarettes by the smoking in the movies Hollywood makes and exports.”

The Smokefree Movies website uses data collected by UCSF partner Thumbs Up!Thumbs Down!, an ongoing project of Breathe California of Sacramento-Emigrant Trails. Since 1995, more than a thousand volunteers between the ages of 14 and 22 have been trained to analyze tobacco content in all films grossing more than $1 million in the domestic market.

Historical resources for the Smokefree Movies website include the 82 million-page Legacy Tobacco Documents Library housed at UCSF. Other information is gathered from film industry sources. UCSF’s Smoke Free Movies receives foundation support for its policy research and education projects.

UCSF is the nation’s leading university exclusively focused on health. Now celebrating the 150th anniversary of its founding as a medical college, UCSF is dedicated to transforming health worldwide through advanced biomedical research, graduate-level education in the life sciences and health professions, and excellence in patient care. It includes top-ranked graduate schools of dentistry, medicine, nursing and pharmacy; a graduate division with world-renowned programs in the biological sciences, a preeminent biomedical research enterprise and top-tier hospitals, UCSF Medical Center and UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals. Please visit www.ucsf.edu.

]]>http://ash.org/hollywood-and-tobacco/feed/0New Global Fund to Help Countries Defend Smoking Lawshttp://ash.org/new-fund-to-defend-smoking-laws/
http://ash.org/new-fund-to-defend-smoking-laws/#commentsThu, 19 Mar 2015 20:30:15 +0000http://ash.org/?p=6555... Read the full article >]]>Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced on Wednesday that they had started a global fund to help low- and middle-income countries fight legal challenges to their smoking laws by the tobacco industry.

The fund is modest, at least so far, with a total of $4 million from the two charities. But Michael R. Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg Philanthropies and the financial data and news company Bloomberg LP, said in a conference call with reporters that the investment was more like an initial marker, and that it was expected to grow as more donors joined the effort.

“The fact that there is a fund dedicated to taking on the tobacco companies in court sends a message that they are not going to get a free ride,” Mr. Bloomberg said. “If they say that’s not a lot of money — yes, well, take a look at who’s behind it.”

]]>http://ash.org/new-fund-to-defend-smoking-laws/feed/0ASH participates in the World Conference on Tobacco or Health 2015http://ash.org/wctoh2015/
http://ash.org/wctoh2015/#commentsMon, 16 Mar 2015 18:57:15 +0000http://ash.org/?p=6539... Read the full article >]]>This week, several representatives of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) will be attending the World Conference on Tobacco or Health in Abu Dhabi. WCTOH is a five-day scientific conference where presenters highlight the latest developments in tobacco control and the efforts around the world to reduce tobacco use.

This year, the conference theme is “Tobacco and Non-Communicable Diseases.” Tobacco use is the number one cause of preventable death globally and the one risk factor common to the major non-communicable diseases (NCDs) – cancer, cardiovascular disease, chronic respiratory disease and diabetes.

This theme is particularly relevant to ASH’s work. ASH is a member of the DC-based NCD roundtable, an organization that works to ensure the inclusion of NCD’s in the UN Sustainable Development Goals, which will replace the Millennium Development Goals.

ASH’s campaign at the United Nations resulted in the inclusion of tobacco control in the draft of the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and ASH continues working to ensure that tobacco control remains in the final draft of the SDGs, which will be adopted in September of this year. Read more about ASH’s work with SDG’s here>.

Many other important tobacco control topics will be presented and discussed at WCTOH. In addition to NCDs, ASH will be participating in panel discussions on illicit trade and access to minors, tobacco endgame strategies, civil society involvement, tobacco and trade agreements, liability, and human rights. In particular, ASH Executive Director, Laurent Huber, will be speaking at a plenary session regarding the 10 year anniversary of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

ASH looks forward to a productive week of presentations and discussions with key stakeholders in the field of tobacco control. Follow us throughout the week as we tweet about the conference via @AshOrg, or follow all of the conference activity on twitter with #WCTOH2015.

Journal Articles

Description: An overview of the concept and the law behind criminal liability, from an Australian criminal law journal.

Quote: “A reasonable company, upon discovering that its products posed a serious threat of death or injury, would either withdraw those products from sale or would render them safe. Clearly, tobacco manufacturers have taken no such steps and, in fact, continue to promote their products and to manufacture them in ways which make it more likely that people will become addicted to them. In doing so, they pose a high risk of death or grievous bodily harm to the public and a jury may find that such conduct, in the circumstances, merits criminal punishment.”

Description: A Tobacco Control Journal letter to the editor that discusses the possibility that the deaths caused by tobacco corporations could be considered a crime against humanity and tried in the International Criminal Court

Quote: “Based on current trends, WHO estimates that the death toll from smoking will rise to 10 million people per year by the year 2025. No other consumer product in the history of the world has come even close to inflicting this degree of harm on the world community. If anything else posed a threat to life of this magnitude, whether human induced or naturally occurring—be it world war, genocide or “ethnic cleansing”, natural disaster, or disease—it would demand immediate international action.”

Newspaper Articles

Description: An L.A. Times article discussing potential criminal liability in the United States.

Quote: “Since more than a quarter of a century of public health warnings, trumped by many billions of dollars more in tobacco marketing, have not slowed the body count, what must a country do? On paper, America values human life over profit.”

Description: A Jerusalem Post Article in which Amos Hausner, son of Gideon Hausner (who prosecuted Nazi Adolf Eichmann) states discusses the end of tobacco, including potential charges of crimes against humanity.

Quote: “’Today, we are in the midst of an irreversible process that will lead to the termination of organized tobacco,’ he said. ‘The environment will be completely tobacco-free. This is what people all over the world want.’”

Description: This L.A. Times article discusses the BP Oil spill case, particularly the charges of corporate manslaughter that resulted from the deaths of several workers. This could be very similar to charges levied against Big Tobacco.

Quote: “The agreement, announced in November, allowed a unit of the London-based oil giant to plead guilty Tuesday to 11 counts of seaman’s manslaughter in connection with the explosion and fire on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the gulf.”

Relevant Case Law

Description: A wrongful death lawsuit based on breached implied warranty of merchantability due to design defect. The plaintiff, the son of a deceased smoker, won the case.

Quote: “We decline to place addictive chemicals outside the reach of product liability and give them special protection akin to immunity based solely on the strength of their addictive qualities. To do so would eliminate any incentive for cigarette manufacturers to make safer perhaps the most dangerous product lawfully sold in the market through reasonable alternative designs.” [emphasis added]

Description: The widow of a smoker who died from lung cancer sued Philip Morris USA for fraud based on advertisements and sponsored studies that made cigarettes seem less dangerous than they actually were. The widow won the case.

Quote: “Viewing the facts in the light most favorable to plaintiff, Philip Morris’s actions, under the criminal statutes in place at the beginning of its scheme in 1954, would have constituted manslaughter. Today, its actions would constitute at least second-degree manslaughter, a Class B felony…Thus, the possibility of severe criminal sanctions, both for any individual who participated and for the corporation generally, put Philip Morris on notice that Oregon would take such conduct very seriously.”

Description: The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court unanimously rejected the tobacco industry’s argument that a smoker is responsible for their own smoking habits (the “blame the smoker” defense. In Massachusetts, the personal choice defense is unavailable to the tobacco companies.

Quote: “If Philip Morris chooses to market an inherently dangerous product, it is at the very least perverse to allow the company to escape liability by showing only that its product was used for its ordinary purpose.”

Laws and Definitions

Description: the definition of manslaughter under the U.S. federal code

Quote: “Manslaughter is the unlawful killing of a human being without malice. Involuntary—in the commission of an unlawful act not amounting to a felony, or in the commission in an unlawful manner, or without due caution and circumspection, of a lawful act which might produce death.”

Description: the definition of “right to health” is also found in numerous international documents. This quote is part of the definition found in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

Quote: “The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.”

Description: the definition of “crimes against humanity” is also found in several international documents. This is the description as it applies to the International Criminal Court.

Quote: “Crimes against humanity” include any of the following acts committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack…murder…other inhumane acts of a similar character intentionally causing great suffering or serious bodily or mental injury.”

Misc.

Description: Could tobacco companies be held criminally liable for their conduct, even if it were accepted that they have complied fully with all laws relating specifically to tobacco? A mock trial was conducted on this topic by universities in Australia.

Quote: “Of particular interest were two issues: whether the argument about criminality depends on showing that the industry has acted in ways beyond that covered by tobacco legislation and regulations—such as by engineering the product so as to make it more attractive or more addictive, or failing to offer assistance, such as cessation programmes, to people it has addicted as children; and just how far the line of criminality might run—perhaps through to company directors, advertisers, marketing executives, and lawyers.”

WASHINGTON, D.C. – March 12, 2015 – Yesterday, Britain’s House of Commons overwhelmingly approved a law requiring plain packaging for tobacco products, just one day after Ireland’s president signed into law the same measure. If the House of Lord’s also approves, as it is expected to on Monday, the number of countries requiring plain packaging will have tripled in one week (Australia introduced their law in 2011). Scotland, France, Finland, Norway, Sweden, and New Zealand, among others, are expected to follow suit, and the European Union as a whole is also considering the measure. But, while plain packaging is proven to decrease smoking, don’t expect similar legislation in the United States any time soon.

Plain – or standardized – packaging is a big victory for public health, and a huge blow to Big Tobacco, whose stock prices have tumbled this week. Tobacco kills over 6 million people each year, and the vector of the tobacco epidemic is tobacco industry marketing. As more and more countries have banned all other forms of tobacco advertising, plain packaging removes the last tiny billboard the tobacco industry can use to push its deadly products. Studies in Australia have shown that plain packaging is effective in convincing smokers to quit and keeping youth from starting.

Meanwhile, in the U.S., we are stuck with tiny, side-of-package textual warnings developed in the 1960s and not updated since 1984. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration attempted to introduce graphic warnings in 2011, but they were struck down after tobacco companies sued in federal court. The FDA says they will try again, but almost four years later there has been no progress.

Tobacco stock prices have tumbled this week amid the news from Ireland and England. Philip Morris International (PM) has dropped 4.17%, while R.J. Reynolds (RAI) and Altria (MO) have dropped 6.79% and 5.77%, respectively. UK-based British American Tobacco (BTI) and Imperial (ITYBY) fell over 5%.

Ireland and England are braced for the inevitable lawsuits. Australia successfully defended their plain packaging law in their supreme court but is still mired in international trade lawsuits from Philip Morris International and five countries under World Trade Organization rules. Some of the legal costs for those countries challenging Australia are being paid by tobacco companies, as detailed on HBO’s Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. Japan Tobacco, Imperial, and Philip Morris International have promised to sue Ireland and England, likely both domestically and through trade agreements.

The public health community has called for tobacco to be exempted from trade agreements in order to stop the tobacco industry from being able to launch trade disputes over health regulations. The U.S. is considering the unique treatment of tobacco in the giant Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, but politicians from tobacco-growing states are demanding that tobacco companies retain the right to sue governments to block public health legislation.

As more countries implement plain packaging as well as tobacco exemptions in trade agreements, the world will be able to reverse the tobacco epidemic and reduce the estimated 1 billion tobacco-related deaths this century.

##

ACTION ON SMOKING AND HEALTHAction on Smoking and Health (ASH) is the nation’s oldest anti-tobacco organization dedicated to health for all. ASH was formed in 1967 in response to the U.S. Surgeon General Report in order to use legal action to fight tobacco and protect nonsmokers. Today, because tobacco is the leading cause of preventable death worldwide, ASH uses global tools to counter the global tobacco epidemic. Learn more about our programs atwww.ash.org.

]]>http://ash.org/last-week-tonight-continued/feed/0Temporary injunction bars man from lighting up inside his Washington home after neighbors suehttp://ash.org/temporary-injunction-bars-man-from-lighting-up-in-his-dc-home/
http://ash.org/temporary-injunction-bars-man-from-lighting-up-in-his-dc-home/#commentsWed, 11 Mar 2015 14:39:34 +0000http://ash.org/?p=6469... Read the full article >]]>WASHINGTON – A temporary order by a Superior Court judge is keeping a man from smoking inside his home in the District of Columbia.

WJLA-TV (http://bit.ly/1BrlPLl ) reports that Edwin Gray’s next door neighbors in northeast Washington have filed a civil suit claiming they’re being harmed by smoke that sneaks into their home through a hole in the basement. They are seeking an injunction and $500,000 in damages.